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Travel Adventures in Ireland: the Dingle Peninsula & Cliffs of Moher (Days 5-7)

Hi all! We’ve made it about two-thirds of the way through our Ireland road trip and I’m back to give you a quick update on our travels. I’m noticing that these posts are getting progressively longer… it’s so difficult to pick and choose favorite photos, favorite sites! So bear with me as we roll through the photos from days 5-7…

Last we left off, we had just finished our two day stay in the lovely fishing village of Dingle. We spent the day after driving the actual Dingle Peninsula and taking in the breathtaking coastline that stretches out across the icy blue Atlantic.

Absolutely stunning. The color of the water here reminds me very much of our own California coastline, but it’s a few degrees cooler. The hills crawling up and out of that fridged water, however, are hardly California and are instead ensconced in a brilliant lime green that rivals anything that we call lawn back home. But I guess that’s what you get with 100+ inches of rain/year.

To this day the country is spotted with fantastic archeological finds. You might just roll on past a few as you’re driving and suddenly find yourself standing amongst shelters, homes, villages that date back to the Middle Ages, or perhaps even earlier. One such marvel that we especially loved (especially Liv!), were the ‘beehive’ huts made of stone chunks that are stacked so perfectly that they round in on the top, overlapping and creating a roof without any adhesive. Talk about a DIY house.

These stones are common just about everywhere in Ireland where a sea of rock wall mazes help to differentiate one man’s land from another.

“Dad, hold my sweater.”

Bah, breathtaking coastline! And check out that bright blue sky.

Further down the peninsula we nearly had Ireland’s prettiest beach to ourselves. Liv could not wait to touch that water, and then she did and she cried. Brrr.

Family fun.

Hurling is a national sport here in Ireland…

Another family moment. You can really tell our height difference here!

Imagine my camera precariously balanced on a rocky ledge… but I love this picture.

Driving has been an entire adventure on its own. It’s a great thing that Kevin rocks at this sort of stuff because I would have probably driven into the right lane (that’s the wrong lane here) at least 50 times by now. And we rented a clutch, because Kevin also rocks at the non-automatic variety of cars and it’s about 100% cheaper.

A typical two lane road in Ireland…

An unfortunate little car had to back all the way down this particular mountain pass as the above white tour bus blocked its way.

When all else fails, let the little one take the wheel.

Don’t worry, we only let her drive with her feet on the city streets, not those crazy mountain roads.

Liv’s absolute favorite thing to do is pretend to drive. She hops into the driver’s seat, attempts to put the keys into the car and rocks out play driving. Supervised of course. She has managed to actually turn on the car once or twice.

The night of driving/beach walking/site seeing ended with a delicious meal and a cute little B&B in Adare, a small town just south of Limerick and north of the Dingle Peninsula.

The next day we started our trip out towards the Cliffs of Moher. This encompasses the drastic coastline where massive rock soars up and out of the Atlantic by over 700 feet creating some pretty amazing views.

It was breezy up there, and of all sites we’ve visited so far the Cliffs of Moher had a fair amount of visitors. But nonetheless it was a site to see and worth the drive out from Limerick. We ran out of time but we really wanted to spend more time driving down this particular stretch of coast, if you make it out here, be sure to check out Loop Head.

Our accomodations for the evening were again booked through AirBnB, we were planning on renting a small vacation cottage on Inis Meain – a rural island off the coast of the mainland. But before catching the ferry, we stopped for a late late lunch in Galway.

Galway seems like a very cool and young (literally lots and lots of University students) city with lots to see. But after just an hour we had to head out.

Mmmm warm red bell pepper soup and Irish soda bread, with a nice glass of Sunburnt Irish Red (yep, that’s the name). We taught Liv to cheers, and now she says ‘cheers!’ and ‘drink!’ whenever she sees glasses.

So that brings us to day 7 on our journey.

The big stars are where we stayed the night, the little ones are the major sites we had the chance to see on our way. And as you can see, we’ve already had to pass by so much! We’ll definitely have to be back sometime soon .

More on our family journey right here (you can start from the beginning of this crazy tour…).

Travel Adventures in Ireland: Cashel & Killarney National Park (Days 3-4)

I hope I’m not beginning to sound like a guide book over here, but I thought I’d keep you posted on our continued adventures. I have plenty of house updates and a few awesome Friday Guest Interviews (from some names you’ll definitely recognize!), but I’m going to try to stay on top of our journey as much as possible… it’s nice to journal our favorite places and sites as we go, that way I won’t forget the name of that Abbey we visited or in what town we took that particular photograph. Journals are so handy in that way!

On to the rest of day 3 at Rock of Cashel and then our time in the Killarney National Park. You can catch up on our previous days in Ireland right here.

We visited Cashel on our drive south from Kilkenny towards Killarney. Upon arriving at this tremendous rock (lying against a backdrop of rolling green hills), it was immediately easy to see what draws the crowds to her beautiful ruins. The crowds were not en-masse today though, so we were able to meander and photograph this fortress-turned-center of the Church for a short while. We also took advantage of the Rock’s official tour which familiarized us with the different styles of architecture (the ‘cashel’ continued to grow and expand over about a thousand years with various inhabitants that included kings and Archbishops and plenty of invadors) and the legends that surround it. One such is that this is the location where St. Patrick converted the King of Munster in the 400s and used a shamrock to explain the Trinity, forever tying this powerful emblem with the country.

Before arriving at our next destination we landed in Killarney for dinner. Also a beautiful little town! We initially had plans to stay near here rather than Kilkenny on night 3, but I’m thankful that we ended up in the slightly smaller latter (Kilkenny) rather than the former (Killarney) despite its charm.

On this particular night we stayed in Dingle, a cute little fishing village right on the peninsula and full of brightly painted homes. Our B&B that we had prereserved (from a recommendation) was the TowerView Bed & Breakfast and I definitely recommend it as well!

We booked Dingle for two nights and really enjoyed the delicious dinner served up at An Canteen on night 2. If you’re in the area, this humble but absolutely delectable eatery is the place to visit (owned by two very nice Irish fellas as well).

On our second day in Dingle, we headed back to Killarney to explore the beautiful lakes, waterfall and scenery of the Killarney National Park. The Muckross House was my favorite, but Liv adored the recreated period farms and the plethora of animals available to see and pet.

She learned to ‘moo’ like a cow, ‘baa’ like a sheep and ‘quack quack’ like a duck! Now, whenever we see any of the above animals, an obligatory stop to moo, baa or quack for a few minutes is required.

On the other side of the park is the Muckross House, a home visited by the Queen of England and owned by several well-to-do families. Riding up in horse and carriage made us feel like we were pulling up to our very own Downton Abbey {sigh}.

We toured the inside of the house as well (no photos allowed) and imagined what it would be like to live at a time when electricity was just introduced and the men and ladies of the home maintained separate sitting rooms (rumor has it that the owner of the home had never set foot into her husband’s billiards space!). The grounds included a stunning waterfall, beautiful gardens and mirrored lakes.

Exhausted, we made it back to Dingle just in time for a meal and a crash.

More on our family journey right here.

Travel Adventures in Ireland: Dublin & Kilkenny (Days 1 to 3)

I’ve had a chance to sort through the first few days of photos from our travels over here in Ireland and I thought I’d share them. We are completely beguiled with Ireland. I can’t believe we haven’t made this trip happen sooner and I hope that it is not our last!

Without further ado, let’s jump on over to Dublin and Kilkenny (which, I dare say, is quite possibly the most *magical* Irish town that ever existed).

Our travel brought us into Dublin just about 24 hours after we had left the States. So says the clock anyway. Since Dublin is eight hours ahead of California, we lived off of that interesting middle time zone for a while before we all adjusted. Thankfully Kevin and I snapped into Ireland time in a jiffy (thanks to switching our watches over and not looking back), but Liv took things at her own speed.

By the time we reached our little flat on late Thursday night we had traveled for a good 20 hours (San Diego – London – Dublin), but we were hardly tired (it was still midday in the US afterall!). Liv (that excellent little traveler that I extolled about here) took a short nap upon our arrival at 8pmish and then ‘woke up’ for the day at a mere 2am. Oh boy! here we go! Thankfully, our kind hosts – whose flat we had rented for the weekend – had left us a stocked kitchenette with a loaf of bread, bar of Irish butter (you could eat this stuff with a knife and fork), half gallon of milk, honey and homemade granola. What a lifesaver. And I was doubly relieved to have a flat to ourselves rather than just a hotel room or B&B space so that we could color, watch a show on the iPad (in hopes of getting drowsy) and eat. Using AirBnB to book many of our ‘home stays’ while away had already proved to be both economical and incredibly comfortable.

The next morning we were off and exploring. Having already agreed to do this at a family pace, we limited our attractions to the Book of Kells at Trinity College, Stephen’s Greens (a lovely large park to explore) and Christ Church Cathedral (just from the outside). We also took a nice city walk that ended up ambling us through Temple Bar, Grafton Street (where we stopped by H&M to pick up a new stack of socks and an additional sweater for Liv), St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Dublin Castle. So I guess we squeezed in quite a bit!

Our wonderful hosts (who lived just above the cozy basement flat that we rented) treated us to a delicious serving of Paella from their food tent at a local lunch time spot. Cute Georgian-style Dublin apartment + lovely chefs = a perfect match for us!

That night we had our first glass of Guiness at a local pub and fell fast asleep into Ireland dream land. Ah but a delicious pint it was.

The next day we packed up our little rental car and moved on down past Dublin to Glendalough, the monastic ruins of St. Kevin’s settlement. We spent hours wandering, playing and taking photos of the beautiful, moss-covered stone. And of Liv. Lots of Liv.

In the above, Liv found a small yellow daisy amongst the tall grasses. She laid it down on several ancient headstones, then picked it up, then laid it down…

We chose a winding, Wicklow Mountain route for the rest of our journey and came across a giant backwoods car sale (not the kind where you sell your car, the kind where everyone opens up their trunks and displays their antique goodies!) If I could have filled my luggage on day 2 with treasures I would have. But alas, we kept on keeping on until we found ourselves in Kilkenny. Our original hope was to have made it all the way to Kensale or Kenmare on this next day (another few hours south), but we found this particular town to be absolutely charming and tracked a last-minute accommodation for the night. This might have been the one opportunity when booking in advance would have saved us a bit! We had to dip into our slush fund to stay at a local hotel upon learning that every B&B was sold out.

 That evening we enjoyed live music (and Liv danced!) and the next day a delicious breakfast at a quaint tea shop full of handmade ribbons and chocolates and biscuits.

Three days in! Many more adventures to go. I’ll try to get these pictures sorted quickly to keep you up to date!

PS Keep up with this travel adventure by checking out all posts here.